Image from this LinkedIn post
Not sure it actually demonstrates the extend of the issue. My favourite way to look at it (via ThunderF00t@youtube I believe):
- dry ice is essentially frozen CO2 ( CO2 in solid form)
- cca 40 billion tuns per year (cca 5t per person / year, 8 billion people)
- 1km side cube of dry ice weights cca 1.5 billion tuns (1.560 kg/m3 says wiki)
=> Burj Khalifa has 830 m - imagine huge cube of dry ice 20% taller ( or 3x eifell tower)- all that CO2 boiling off in massive clouds - than add 25 of them - each year. We’ve been doing this at some scale for decades…
Expected it to be bigger, still terrifying
Wait?! Is this what they mean by carbon capture?
My brain is not wrapping around this so well.
The co2 in that cube at normal air pressure would weigh 1000 kg?
Doesn’t air only weigh a kilogram per cubic meter?
I know co2 is heavier, but is co2 that much heavier?
Like 20 times heavier?
No, I just looked it up, air is 1.2 kg per cubic meter and CO2 is 1.8 kg per cubic meter.
Someone set me straight, I don’t get it.
At standard temperature and pressure (STP) it looks like CO2 has a density of 1.96 kg/m^3. 1 tonne = 1000 kg, so a tonne of CO2 has a volume of (1000 kg)/(1.96 kg/m^3) = 510 m^3 at STP. A cube of that volume would have side length (510 m3)(1/3) = 7.99 m, so roughly 8 meters per side.
I don’t know how tall that person is, but if we assume around 1.6 m (5’ 3") then the cube side length should be about 5 of her. Seems pretty accurate to me.
I guess I’m confused on the definition of a “tonne” of CO2. Am I to believe that if that cube was completely full of CO2 that volume of CO2 would weigh 1000kg?
Nevermind, just looked it up. It’s actually a measure of volume, just 1000 cubic meters, which makes perfect sense.
Edit: it was actually the first one, although a “tonne” as a measure of volume does exist.
You had it right the first time, 1 tonne (1000 kg) of CO2 at standard temperature and pressure would have a volume equivalent to that cube.
Confirmed with this MIT page: https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-ton-carbon-dioxide